Ergonomic Quality in Green Building Protocols

The control of living conditions in built spaces is a key aspect of design in order to guarantee the final user to live in healthy and safe spaces. This importance is also recognized in green building rating systems that, in fact, present criteria on wellbeing with particular link to physical issues. In this context, the adoption of an ergonomic approach would be useful in order to address the interaction between user and built environment as a whole, considering both factors that affect physical wellbeing (i.e. thermo-hygrometric, acoustic, lighting, air purity), and those that complete the complex sphere of wellbeing, that are psychological and social too. The aim of this study is to appraise how green building evaluation tools are able to bring out user’s wellbeing in all its complexity. With respect to ergonomic quality, the study analyses LEED, a widely internationally widespread green building rating systems, and WELL, the first rating system with a specific focus on user wellbeing. A comparison between the two systems is carried out, with respect to their efforts in bringing out the ergonomic quality of built environment. The results show that both the analyzed tools give space to building features for user’s wellbeing. Properly, the weight given to these aspects is less in LEED, because user’s wellbeing is not its unique goal; however, some efforts would be useful to increase and reward the related criteria. In both cases, ergonomists within the project team can be a key element to pursue wellbeing in an effective user-centered vision.